Goodbyes Are Infinite
by duke21
Summary: The discovery of a confession note reopens the 2006 case of a man found stabbed to death just days after the funeral of a close friend who he was unable to save. Stillman talks to Scotty about the ethical issues of pursuing what he wants. 8x03
1. Chapter 1

_**THE FOLLOWING STORY IS FICTIONAL AND DOES NOT DEPICT ANY ACTUAL PLACE OR EVENT**_

_**August 6**__**th**__** 2006**_

_["You Only Live Once" by The Strokes]_

_Never before, in the entirety of the universe, had there ever been such a diverse group of friends, who actually enjoyed each other's company. The fact that the cliques were not even part of the discussion seemed to be the best thing about it all really. Popular kids and outcasts shoved into a group of seven._

_To be honest, neither of them could even tell you how they came to be friends in the first place. They had all taken it for granted because it was the most perfect thing that they had. Their little meetings up outside of life always made each of them smile in one way or another. Their laughter and empathy towards each other was not forced like it had been with other friends, but at the same time they agreed that they were not the most cohesive group of friends._

_The sounds of laughter filled the air as smoke and the scent of alcohol made it abundantly hard to breath without staggering for a few steps. _

_Taking the blunt from his mouth and blowing out the smoke into the air, Victor couldn't help but grin and look towards Arnold. "Shit man, where the eff do you find this stuff" he asked, trying his best to not break down in a fit of giggles. Without even thinking twice, he passed the joint around the room clockwise to Missy next. _

_Quite frankly he should have known better than to give the blunt to her. The way she analysed it and inspected it made it abundantly clear that she didn't have the slightest clue what she was actually doing. The way she crinkled her nose and held it as if it was the nastiest thing in the world just made the gang erupt with laughter once more, well everyone except Missy and Julia._

_To be quite honest, he had never actually heard Julia laugh. All he knew was that she smiled more than she laughed and judging from the wide set smile on her face, she was laughing the best she could._

"_How do I even…" Missy started, knowing full well the process since she had just watched a room full of people do it. The whole scene never got old. "Is this what we're supposed to do for fun?" she asked, slightly confused._

_From the corner of the room another voice spoke up. "Lighten up Mis', it's not like it's the end of the world or something" Wallace responded in his rather passive tone. Wallace had always been the outcast that this group needed, the one guy who wasn't afraid to express opinions and actually be someone different for the sake of this group of friends. "S'not like Arnold would intentionally try to poison us."_

_Once again a light-hearted laughter filled the air. "Yeah, because I have something to gain from killing my stoner friends… well maybe Martina, Julia and Courtney but I have my reasons there" Arnold replied with a smirk planted on his face. The rest of the gang knew he was joking because that's just who Arnold was. Always making jokes and never meaning anything he actually said._

_Victor felt a tight squeeze. Courtney had been wrapped around his arm since they had come into this room and he could only assume that she wanted him to say something to defend her. Instead what he did was give a look of clear apathy with a rather boyish smile warming his face. The crinkling of Courtney's eyebrows implied that she was not okay with this. They had been going out for a few months and she really did expect him to stand up for her. Then again, she expected a lot of things from a lot of people._

"_Chill out…" Victor spoke in a hushed tone towards her. "It's just a joke, he didn't mean anything by it alright…" Courtney huffed, blowing air through her mouth and blowing strands of dark brown hair out of her face._

_Victor thought he had spoken low enough to actually be silent to the rest of the group but he had never anticipated Martina overhearing him. "Yeah Courtney, learn to take a joke…" she replied. Immediately everyone raised an eyebrow at her and turned sharply to face Martina. For the longest time no one said nothing. "What!?" she asked._

_Smiling again Julia stood up and walked over to the mini-fridge which was placed up against the back wall. "Dear it's sort of funny how you forget our senior year prank." Just like that, Martina's cheeks flushed the brightest shade of red as Courtney tried her best to keep in her laughter. "That's all right though. You've done worse in your life…"_

"_JULIA!" Martina spoke, a look that could kill and pierce through the strongest metal. The gangs expressions faded into one of confusion, but Julia just sat there with the same old smug look that she always carried about with her._

_For as long as he had known Julia, Victor had known that she was a rather secretive person who was really good when it came to keeping the secrets of others close to her chest. She was a natural blackmailer and secret-finder-outer. Part of Victor was in awe of how he could have done it. He stared consciously at her for a few moments._

"_That reminds me, have you told Courtney you got accepted into med school yet…" _

_Victor winced. He was planning on telling her, but he wanted it to come from his own mouth. Just the sheer fact that he felt like he could no longer feel his arm seemed to suggest it was a bad idea to keep it from her. Turning his face he gave an apologetic look to a rather cross looking Courtney Kang. He always did like it when she looked like she was going to kill someone._

_Sighing, he looked over to Julia who was beaming with delight. "Well no, I was waiting for the right time…" Victor spoke, as he reached into his pocket. "Because there are just some things that need time."_

_The rest of the gang seemed to applaud with congrats and cheers coming from Missy, Arnold, Martina and Wallace. Julia already knew so it wasn't really a surprise to her and Courtney just seemed displeased with the idea. Taking a deep breath he turned towards his girl and revealed a box._

"_I was actually hoping to ask this question in private but now that you're here…" Victor started, hearing the baited breaths of everyone else in the room. As soon as he opened the box, on the little padded cushion where there should have been a ring stood one of those sweets in the shape of a ring. "Would you take my ring pop?"_

_All at once he felt himself falling over from being pushed by Courtney, laughing all the while. Funnily enough, she managed to see the humour in it and so didn't stay mad for long. All it took was the gangs laughter to reel her in. The only one who remained in a state of being pissed off was Julia; she just smiled flakily._

* * *

_At the bottom of the flight of stairs where she had just fallen down, Julia's mouth hung open, her body sprawled on the floor as if it had just been flung around like a ragdoll through her collision with the twenty or so steps that seemed to lead up to the second floor of her house. Blood pooled on the floor from the back of her head as she struggled to breath, trying her best to say something._

_Moments later, two figures came into view in the form of Victor and Arnold. _

"_Julia?" Victor asked as he loomed in a bit closer, Arnold doing his best to stay in the background of the whole situation as always. On seeing the blood, Victor raced the final few steps and leaned next to Julia. "Julia…!?" he asked, panicking about what was going on. Turning towards Arnold who was still in the background trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, he pointed. "Arnold… dial 911."_

_Leaping into action, Victor did everything that he had in his power to make sure that enough air was getting into her lungs in a desperate hope that he could actually manage to save her somehow. As he bounced rhythm into the girls chest he couldn't help but take short and shallow breaths himself._

"_Come on Julia… don't die on me…"_

* * *

_A few weeks after the final scene, the camera pans in to a rainy afternoon. In the distance, a body lies up ahead supporting itself against a grave stone in a desperate attempt to stay alive. With his back against the grave marker, Victor did his best to clutch his chest where he had just been stabbed. From the look on his face, he had taken quite a beating. His nose was broken and his cheeks were flushed with the blood that was running to them._

_In one final attempt to note his killer, Victor turned to face the grave stone he was pitted up against and smiled eagerly on seeing the name. Before he could do much of anything, he felt his body becoming limp and swiping at Julia Hammonds name. All he could really do right now was accept his fate in that it was probably the end of the line for him in a lot of ways._

"_I'm s-s-sorry I f-failed you."_

* * *

At the bullpen of Philadelphia homicide, it appeared that the immaturity was running rampant through everyone's minds today. Any excuse to take a crack at Nick was always an excuse worthwhile. Vera had fallen asleep on his chair once again and so Scotty and Kat thought it's be in good fun to make a bunch of paper footballs and ping them at the sleeping Vera. So far there had been a few near misses and one direct hit that had caused the snoring beast to hitch his sounds for a few seconds before gently lumbering back into his sleeping state.

After a while, Lilly looked across and just shook her head with a smile. Honestly, she got the appeal behind all of it but there was just so much on her mind right now that she didn't really have the capacity to put up with it.

Slowly her eyes scanned the room, falling on Jeffries who was busy talking to Stillman and getting a cup of water from the cooler. It was hard to imagine how she had achieved such a remarkable dynamic of friends. She loved each one of them for their individual traits because they made her want to try harder. Soon, her eyes fell upon someone who had walked through the metal detector and was now approaching the bullpen at an exponential rate. Lilly had seen enough cold jobs to know when someone had something that they urgently needed to share with the police.

Without pausing to take a breath the young woman stopped hastily right in front of Lilly. The girl had very short hair, to the point where she almost looked like a pixie in some regards. Her rather fair complexion and her body figure helped to concrete this definition of being a pixie. Before she could even say anything, a flash of her eleven year old self appeared before Lilly. Her glasses were thick and her blonde hair was fairly longer than it was now. Flashing back the girl looked more panicked than ever.

"The people downstairs told me that you guys look at old cases…?" the girl asked, posing the statement as more of a question than anything else. She seemed distressed enough about what had happened and so it was up to Lilly to take the girl since everyone else seemed so "busy" with their own work.

"Yeah…" Lilly answered, outstretching her hand towards the girl. "Detective Lilly Rush." she spoke, using the softest tone that she could muster.

For the first time, a smile crawled onto the girls face as she took the detectives hand and shook it promptly. "Evelyn Washington" For her it was the answer that she needed. "I'm here because… well… something happened and I… I don't know."

Lilly waved her hand to a seat in front of her desk and it didn't take long for Evelyn to take a seat. Soon after, Lilly lowered herself onto hers whilst keeping a steady eye contact with the girl sat across from her. "Okay, let's start from the beginning" Lilly replied. "Do you know where that is for you?"

Nodding, Evelyn swallowed hard. "My brother, Victor Washington, he was found stabbed back in 2006…" she started. "Cops never really found out who did it." Now it appeared that Evelyn was getting upset in a totally different way. Still, she made sure that no tears fell from her voice. From Lilly's perspective it seemed like she prided herself in being a rather contained individual.

Lilly scrawled down the name as quickly as she could before looking back up at Evelyn.

"We can try and look back into your brothers case, but without any new leads it might be difficult" Lilly said begrudgingly as she leaned across the table.

In an instant, Evelyn sparked up again, quickly setting her bag into her lap and diving through like her life depended on it. The whole scene forced Lilly to raise an eyebrow. When she had found what she had wanted a few moments later, she slapped it onto the table in hopes it would bring her one step closer to the person who murdered her brother all those years ago.

There was a letter lying on the table that had just been recently opened. Lilly took a look inside and inside was a small note and a picture. Firstly she took a look at the picture which was clear enough. It seemed to be of a group of 7, all smiling and having a good time with each other. That would have been the only thing of note had there not been two crosses flung through two members of the group photo. There was a girl, whom she did not know, and a man who she assumed was Victor Washington.

Afterwards she picked up the note and observed what it said for a moment. _"I am so sorry for my secrecy for all these years, but you should know that I am responsible for what happened to Victor." _Looking up, she frowned towards Evelyn. "When did you get this."

After a short pause the girl spoke. "A week or two ago they were mailed to my mom but she's…" With the audible sigh that Evelyn had given, she could only jump to conclusions about the whole thing. "She's not been right since Victor passed away." Swallowing hard she looked back up. "Please Miss Rush, you have to take this case. Victor was everything to us and we never got closure on it. We need it for both of out sakes."

Lilly gave a warm smile. "I'll see what I can do…"


	2. Chapter 2 Part 1

There was a musty scent that filled the air as Stillman and Lilly made their way down to the evidence room where all the cold cases were being stored. On the way down, she could tell that there was something that he wanted to say to her. She could only assume it was to talk about the whole her and Scotty situation that had went down a few weeks earlier. Things could never be normal around this place and Lilly had already accepted this fact a long time ago. The only thing that even crossed her mind right now was the current case.

Both crossed down different aisles, each trying to find the same case box. Quite frankly, the layout meant that it didn't take too long at all for Stillman to grab the box down from the shelf and rest it on a nearby table.

Lilly hadn't even noticed that Stillman had found the case until she glanced over just to check. It made her look a little like a fool in that moment but it was a moment that was only shared between them. By the time she had managed to work her way over to the case box, Stillman had already opened the file and was reading aloud, giving Lilly the details that she needed.

"Victor Washington, 21 year old male, found stabbed to death in '06 by a friends gravestone. Notes here said that she had died a couple of weeks earlier… fell down the stairs" he rattled off, not really paying any mind to much of the other files or evidence found in the box.

Lilly looked inside and removed the autopsy report and skimmed through it fairly quickly. Her eyebrows shot up as she read on. "According to the Autopsy report he was beaten pretty badly before he was stabbed… twice." Closing the file she couldn't help but to think what this might have meant to the case. A severe dose of overkill and the fact that it had been done in such a public area too.

Stillman looked up from the case file for a minute, a hint of something playing on his face as he peered over his glasses towards Lilly. "What are you thinking Lilly?"

Lilly paused, thinking through her thoughts for a moment before finding one she liked and looking back towards Stillman with her same old half-smile. "Whoever did this must have known Victor. I mean it doesn't strike me as a senseless act of violence." Slipping the Autopsy Report back into the case box, she looked back towards Stillman. "Combine that and the confession and I think that whoever we're looking for was pretty close to Victor."

Stillman nodded, browsing down again. "Cops back in '06 just thought it was a mugging gone wrong. No wallet. No ID. No nothing." He passed along the open case file to Lilly hoping she would be able to make more of it than he could right now. "They had to get him ID'd through his mother. Must have killed her" Stillman spoke aloud, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with a small piece of cloth he had on him.

"Any ideas on where you want to start with this one Lil'?" Stillman asked. He knew that she would always have some idea of what she wanted to do and what kind of path she would want to follow.

All Lilly could do was nod as she flicked through the file. "That picture. There were seven of them and now there are five" Lilly replied, looking up briefly.

"So you think that whoever did this to Victor might be planning on doing it with someone else from the picture" he asked with a sceptical brow. He honestly wondered why a killer would even wait that long before striking again.

Lilly looked up again. "What I'm saying is that someone from that picture might know more than they're letting on." What she hesitated to say was that she was willing to bet money on the culprit being one of the uncrossed faces on the picture?

Still, something seemed a little shady for her. Why would the person who mailed that letter score out the face of the other dead girl? Surely they could have kept the face in, or they could have even used a picture which did not include the dead girl. Something told Lilly, this was something that was going to be important to the case. It was really too early to say anything. She wrestled with the idea for a little while longer before concluding that if it was meant to reappear it would.

Lilly locked eyes on one of the pictures that were placed in the file. Apparently, it was a group picture of the same seven people from the last picture. This time though it was different. Instead of acting like the young adults that they were, the boys instead wore suits whilst the girls wore dresses; a classy representation, but not a realistic interpretation.

One of the things that she did note from the picture though was that he had his arm wrapped round one of the girls, a pretty Asian girl with brunette hair. Judging from the way she was standing in proportion to this, she quickly realised that whoever she was, was Victor's girlfriend at some point in time.

"What I want to do first is talk to this Courtney Kang" Lilly spoke as she identified a face to a name thanks to the file.

Stillman nodded, grabbing the case box by its holds and carrying it out in front of him. "Take Kat with you" he spoke in a very adamant tone. Whatever he was thinking must have been the worst. Realistically she should have said something then and there but it was not her battle to fight, and even if it was she was sure that she would somehow be the loser in the end.

"Will do boss" she spoke, ascending the stairs to the Bullpen.

* * *

As the detectives walked into the rather ritzy department store, they looked so out of place. It was such a difference that those who walked in the opposite direction did their best to avoid the detectives. Honestly, Kat would have said something if she felt it wouldn't have made things a little bit worse.

All they really needed to know about Courtney Kang was revealed by where she worked. The fact that she had managed to bag such a classy job implied that she had actually managed to make something of herself. In the "fun" picture, Courtney did seem to be the most reserved out of all of them, but even thinking back on that picture, she could never imagine her ending up somewhere like here. As they passed several employees, their opinions on who Courtney Kang was now had not differed much.

When asking at the front desk, the man had directed them to the clothing department.

As they turned the corner to face rack upon rack of well to do clothes, Courtney Kang came into view. From far away she looked fine, but as they came closer they could see the cracks a little better. Courtney seemed to be worn down; bags under the eyes and stress lines forming on her face. Her brunette hair was neatly straightened behind her and her smile shone on with each passing customer. It was a façade that she had learned to play well. Her hazel eyes seemed to fall upon the detectives a few short moments later.

It was only then that Lilly caught a glimpse of the younger Courtney Kang; geek chic glasses, a beanie hiding most of the top of her head, and her clothing all being a few sizes too large for her. As she disappeared behind a rack and emerged again, she returned to the older woman, once more with the rather obvious cracks.

Slowly, Courtney came to an almost stop in front of Kat and Lilly. "Can I help you ladies find anything?" Courtney asked, simply hoping that this was just another customer who wanted her to fetch something. As mundane and meaningless as that might have been, it was still more enjoyable than reliving some of the worst moments of her life. Why else would the detectives be here, it wasn't like there was much to her life that could have been looked at under a microscope.

"Detectives Rush and Miller, Philly homicide" Lilly spoke, the trademark phrase rolling off of her tongue in a rather soft manner as she forced a half-smile whilst holding up her badge. Kat was quick behind with her own badge.

The look on Courtney's face right now was a mix of mortification and nervousness. Lilly understood, the last thing she really wanted was for her employers to come down hard on her and helping out with a homicide inquiry might have been looked down on.

For a moment there was silence. "Are you Courtney Kang?" Kat asked, raising a brow.

Nodding her head softly, she kept her voice down to a soft whisper for whatever reason. "Look, I already told you guys everything that I knew back then." She bit her lip. As much as she wanted to say differently, Courtney had never been good at keeping her feelings to herself or lying to others. "It's been 8 years. Can't we let them rest in peace" Courtney pleaded.

Both detectives doubted that she really cared all that much about Victor, but rather that she was more concerned for her job right now. As much as she said she had moved on, it was pretty obvious that she still held the past fairly close to her chest.

"Well we received some new evidence and we're just looking things over again; new eyes and everything" Lilly spoke, another half-smile tugging her lips. "We have a few more questions for you that the detectives back then might not have asked."

Courtney crossed her arms across her chest. She obviously was annoyed but the way she bounced on her feet made her look more like a panicked mouse right now. In all honesty, she thought she had told the detectives everything she had known a long time ago but apparently there was more here than either of these detectives were saying.

"How was Victor around the time of the funeral?" Kat asked, a sympathetic tone taking place for her usual straight forward tone. It was clear that she was going to have to sweeten it up with this girl.

Courtney thought for a moment, taking a long time to mull over the facts that she knew. "Well… he seemed to be a little distant. Not quite all there but there at the same time" Courtney replied. "He'd never been a big talker of things in general, but after Julia died in his arms, he sort of just blanked out."

"Victor was there the time Julia died?" Lilly asked.

Courtney simply nodded. "He was the first one on the scene with Arnold. They both felt responsible but Arnold got over it, Victor never could."

There was a sense of understanding between both of the detectives. The loss of a loved one was always a hard blow to any group dynamic and it seemed right now like Victor had taken the brunt of the blow. "Did he act weird in any way? Did anyone pull away from him?" Lilly asked.

Courtney bit her lip harder and inhaled deeply like she was wanting to say something but deciding against it for the good of the friendship that she still shared with the others. "I'll be honest with you detectives" she started, sighing loudly. "We all kind of treated Victor differently after Julia died. At the time he was going to med school and he was the first on the scene…"

"You all blamed him for what happened to Julia…" Kat responded, a slight annoyance appearing in her tone. The whole thing just rubbed her up the wrong way.

Courtney shrugged. "We all thought he was superman, so when he failed we made him out to be the villain. I thought things would be different at the funeral, but…" Courtney stopped mid-sentence wondering where she could even go from here.

"But…?" Lilly repeated.

"It made things worse" Courtney finally said after a short silence. "It made things a whole lot worse"

* * *

_["You Could Be Happy" by Snow Patrol]_

_It was not your typical kind of funeral day._

_The sun still beat down on the Philadelphia streets and no one besides a handful of people were mourning the loss of Julia. It all seemed to be highly unfair. Why were these people not permitted to mourn in funeral weather whilst many were? This was one of the many questions that Victor found himself asking as he walked up to the site where Julia was going to be set down into the ground._

_In all his pleading to try and be a pallbearer as a final symbol of friendship for her, he was outvoted five to one by the people that he respected most in the world. He would never have done anything to try and impose himself when it came to them, so maybe that's why he decided to let it go. In an effort to try and pull himself further away from the heartache he simply felt the need to push more into the lion's den. It was stupid of him to think that he could change anything but he at least wanted to make an effort._

_He made one final tug at his tie as he neared the final resting ground. Quite frankly he hated ties, the mere thought of them was enough to constrict his throat prematurely. When he got within ten yards or so, he stopped playing with his tie and decided to try and act like the respectable man that people wanted him to be._

_As much as he wanted to, Victor could not live up to those expectations if he tried. All he wanted was to be by his friends, laughing about the times when they had done shit that they deemed hilarious._

_Pausing beside Arnold, he nodded his head, hoping Arnold's peripheral vision would allow him to do the same. The response came a few seconds later. It was good to know that there was still someone on his side right now. That being said, Arnold wasn't exactly extending his arms wide open for him either._

_"Thanks for coming man…" Arnold spoke. Arnold knew more than anyone how he felt about the whole thing; that's what best friends were for. "I know you didn't want too…" he spoke in a hushed whisper so as not to let all the others hear._

_Victor couldn't care less if the others heard right now because what he knew was that they would want them all to be here when she went into the ground. They were supposed to be best friends and dammit if he was going to let anyone stop him._

_"Of course man" Victor spoke, his voice fairly weak._

_"We didn't want you here." rang a voice from the other side of him. He winced as he slowly recognised the face as Courtney's. She honestly looked so much different when she was trying to be presentable. She seemed less fun and more serious. Julia would not have stood for this one bit, though he did assume it would be a tad disrespectful if they all decided to wear their street clothes to the funeral of a close friend. "You should go."_

_Victor scoffed. Fighting at a funeral with a girlfriend who was slowly alienating him was certainly something he didn't want to do right now, but there was no way he was giving in. "No." The reply was adamant, one that tried to stick its feet into the mud._

_"Victor, please, we'll talk about this later…" she insisted. Despite the fact that he was right next to him and in earshot of everything, Arnold stood firmly faced forward. "We don't need to see you here. They don't need to see you here."_

_Why was everyone treating him like he was responsible for what happened. An accident gone wrong had to have someone to blame, sure, but he never expected it to be him. "I need to see this through" Victor spoke, noticing that Missy and Martina had also arrived on the scene, standing next to Arnold._

_As had been, Missy was standing the furthest away from him. Ever since the death of Julia, it had been getting more and more ridiculous. She had always been a quiet and shy person, but this was certainly pushing all sorts of boundaries._

_"Can't you see Victor, your friends don't need you here" Martina spoke, never removing her eyes from the casket. It was as if she was frozen, forced to look at the thing that contained her best friend. "You managed to break our group and so you have to deal with the consequences of that." Victor swallowed hard._

_It was looking more likely with each passing second that the friendship he shared with these five was now in tatters over something that was out with his control. They found him solely responsible. Of course Julia could never be to blame, slipping down the stairs. Of all things that could have killed the ice queen, he never assumed breaking her neck would be one of them._

_"What the hell is he doing here!?" asked a voice from behind. Victor could tell right away who it was. What a surprise it was to hear the normally stoic Wallace speak up. He clearly had an opinion about this and that just made Victor feel all the more worse._

_"Why don't you ask him yourself" Courtney spoke, a snideness running through her voice that could cut diamond._

_There was a short audible sigh to the side of him. "Guys, can we not do this here" Arnold spoke. He was past standing up for Victor and now it just seemed he was more about keeping the peace. "We're here for Julia."_

_"Oh I know you're here for her. Still doesn't explain what he's doing here." Wallace echoed the sentiments of the group, though no one really spoke up._

_Victor turned round and headed towards Wallace, slumping his hands into his pockets. "If you want to say goodbye, I'm not gonna stop you Wallace. But just know that you can't stop me either."_

_Wallace closed the gap, meeting Victors gaze before digging a finger into his chest. "Get lost before I make you get lost" he spoke, walking towards his group of friends who he knew would always be there for him. "You're not welcome here."_

_Sighing, Victor turned on his heel and headed the opposite direction. There was no point to this fighting and the quicker he could get away from it, the better he would feel about himself._

* * *

Courtney looked deeply upset, embarrassed and a bunch of other emotions all at once. That was the mix you got when you relived the moment that you turned away one of your best friends for doing nothing wrong. "Back then we were all still grieving. We were all still sorta lost without our leader."

Lilly nodded. "Julia was your leader and when she died, the group disbanded?" she asked, a simple curious question to see if the group still kept in touch with each other after all these years.

She frowned and shook her head. "We were friends in high school. Once high school was over we tried to keep touch and we did. Then Julia and Victor died and we sort of lost our way with each other" she spoke. "We say hi when we pass each other in the street but like, that's all we do for the most part"

"What about this character at the funeral who had a real problem with Victor?" Kat asked.

Courtney gave another sigh. "Wallace Lachlan" she said, fairly softly as if threatened by the presence of the name itself. "I promise you detectives Wallace isn't a bad person... he's just…" In the midst of wanting to be as correct as possible, Courtney reached for the only word that she knew described Wallace perfectly. "Broken."

Looking amongst themselves, they gave a knowing nod. "Thanks for your time" Lilly offered.

With a faint smile on her face, she gave a curt nod before turning and heading towards the counter once more. Before she could get more than five feet away, she turned. "Detectives…" she started.

"Make sure you get his killer this time."


	3. Chapter 2 Part 2

For the past few weeks it seemed as if an air of alienation had fallen upon the bullpen and the detectives who worked there. They each carried through with their mundane lives, working from the time they got up till the time the lay down. No one was ever the wiser to think that there could be something worth noting in their lives.

Nick was busying himself with his desk, trying to clear it from all of the paper balls that had been thrown at him earlier; Jeffries clung close to his own desk, looking over every now and again before shaking his head with a dismissive smirk; Scotty just seemed lost in thought, thoughts that all seemed to echo the same thing over and over again. As much as he could have pursued what he had wanted, he knew that the risks of doing such would probably damage the dynamic of the team in a big way.

And yet, he just didn't seem to care about that right now.

He turned to face Stillman who was scribbling something in his notebook whilst he held the phone between his shoulder and his head. A short smile breathed onto his face before he closed the notebook closed again. Maybe it was nothing of relevance to him or to the case, but Scotty was still a tad curious.

Lilly had managed to slip out earlier, along with Kat with a new case in hand. It seemed that had been happening a lot lately for him. Every time he was close enough to even greet her with a hello, she would always sidestep him and move onto something that seemed more promising. As far as he knew, the lukewarm awkwardness had not gone unnoticed under the watchful eyes of their captain who was all but ready to aggressively take matters into his own hands.

From what he had read about the case when Stillman had brought up the file, it just seemed like a classic case of a robbery gone wrong. No ID, No Wallet, No Nothing. The trivialness of it all had Scotty questioning if this was a case worth looking into at all.

Still, Lilly must have seen something if she was willing to take it on; Stillman even more so since he was the captain of this sloppy renegade ship of detectives. Despite that though, he would have to say that Lilly had a great pull on Stillman, it seemed especially impossible for him to say anything out against her.

The phone call had come in just short of thirty minutes earlier. A new lead had been uncovered and of course, a handful of the detectives were following said lead to try and uncover all they could about Wallace Lachlan. From what he had heard about the guy, it seemed like he was a fairly rough type of guy who didn't like Victor all that much after everything that had happened.

All the information they needed was huddled around a centre desk; they were just waiting for Kat and Lilly to walk through the doors before discussing anything further.

As if beckoned by a single stray thought, Kat and Lilly emerged from the elevator and proceeded to the bullpen. The look on their faces seemed to be a mixture of thought and excitement that this case had taken off in such a way. Finally they would be able to answer questions for those who had been left behind in Victors wake.

Within an instant, everyone huddled round the single desk, as if crowding round a water cooler to discuss current events or some such matter. Without breaking or even pausing for a breath Lilly broke the unstrained silence with "Did you guys manage to find anything on our guy? Wallace Lachlan?"

Jeffries was the first to speak up. "Seems like Wallace has had a little bit of trouble when it comes to his past. Served time for aggravated assault back in '08 for coming at his brother with a wrench..." The whole thing seemed like a classic set up for a friend who was ready to lose his temper at any moment.

Nick nodded as he continued on. "He's been seeing a court-mandated therapist. Anger management issues." With that she could feel the mountain of imperial evidence piling up on Wallace, even if it was all down to interpreting his past behaviours and mannerisms. "Wallace has got a really aggressive streak apparently. It's lucky that he's managed to hold it back for so long."

"There's more…" Scotty added. "Ever since '06, it seems like the guy can't hold a job for more than six months without being let go. He's had seven jobs in the past 8 years."

Just like that, Courtney's words seemed to bring a single thought into clarity. Wallace was broken. The death of Julia must have hit him especially hard. She was well aware of just how hard loss could be on a person but the fact that it had affected a person so drastically made Lilly want to reconsider all the evidence she had. If he truly did blame Victor for her death, then he would have been blaming her for so much more than what happened to Julia; he'd have been blaming Victor for his inability to cope or move on.

Stillman spoke up. "Well right now he's our best lead and he might know something about this whole thing." Quickly he turned to Scotty. "You and Nick go check out Wallace. See if he remembers anything about Victor or the week he died."

There was a certain look that Stillman exchanged with Scotty. He didn't want to read too much into it, but he knew fairly well that Stillman was up his ass about something right now. He decided to ignore it for the time being. If there really was a problem then it would surface eventually.

* * *

The home of Wallace Lachlan seemed like the perfect pick for his attitude. Within rows of houses, there was one that just seemed wedged in, having to have been built up the way instead of along the way. Even the house felt somewhat alien to those that surrounded it. Sure, it might not have been the best neighbourhood but the people looked like they made an effort to keep their houses in order, whilst Lachlan's just looked like it was barely holding itself up straight.

When the detectives had stopped outside it moments earlier, they had to double check the address that they had, just to make sure that there was actually someone living here.

The drive over had been an interesting one. The case had gotten the detectives talking about their old friends from school and college, and checking if they still kept in touch with one another. It never bothered Scotty to hear Nick relive his own glory days of high school. His stories were usually fairly interesting and managed to keep Scotty interested on the drive over.

"Thomas Donnelly" Nick spoke as the car came to a halt on the road, resting just outside the apartment. "Still manage to meet him up for drinks whenever he's in town. Always quick with a joke. Man the stories I could tell about that guy."

Scotty gave a wide ass grin as he climbed out of the car and onto the pavement, thinking back himself to his High School days. He could barely remember anyone. The names were a blur and they had been for the longest time. All of this happened eons ago.

As the detectives took the few steps up to meet the door, they both spotted a face appear in the window before disappearing again. It was enough to make both detectives look at each other with raised eyebrows. Either way, they now knew he was in and there wasn't much he could do in the ways of hiding from them now.

Maybe there was a chance he could have gotten a tip from Courtney that they were coming. That of course would make this case more challenging if someone within the group was responsible.

Without much hesitation, Vera knocked on the door. He was very much expecting it to open within a matter of moments, but when those moments passed by without much of an answer, Vera knocked louder. Of course by now his patience had already worn thin, forcing the detective to pound the door once more after only a few more seconds. "Wallace Lachlan, Philly PD. Open up!"

Just like that, there were a lot of noises coming from behind the door. Some muttered whispering could be heard over the sounds of the locks being taken off of the door. For a while, it seemed like he must have been talking to someone.

Very slowly at first, the door finally opened to reveal the first glimpse of Wallace that didn't come from a fleeting look. The fact that Wallace wore mostly grey, loose fitting clothing seemed to say a lot about him right then and there. He reeked of a look of complacency and judging from the mild stench that was coming from him, he wasn't an avid fan of cleaning himself up. Curly and bushy locks hung from his head, looking for a place to go, before settling to the side of his fairly greasy face.

For a moment Scotty caught the glimpse of someone else; someone who's posture and attire were smart. It was someone who kept their hair short and probably made every inkling to try and be a model citizen. Just like that though, the look reverted back to the one he posed with now.

"Can I help you?" Wallace asked, a fairly aggressive tone seeping through. Both detectives were going to have to try their best to maintain their cool around Lachlan if the stories were actually true. Even now, he just looked pissed with the detectives for disturbing him in whatever it was he had been doing. Scotty assumed drugs.

"Scotty Valens, Nick Vera. Homicide" Scotty abruptly spoke, whilst showing his badge. There was a sense that he needed to be specific and straight to the point if he wanted to go anywhere when it came to Wallace. "We're reopening an investigation into the death of-"

"Julia Crest?" Wallace asked expectantly, not even sorry that he had just interrupted the detective stood in front of him.

Well this was certainly something. Apparently Wallace was under the impression that a death that was labelled as an accident should have been reopened. Maybe there might have been some method to all of this, but right now they needed to remain focused on Victor.

"Actually no…" Vera spoke in a very matter-of-fact kind of voice. "Victor Washington. Remember him?"

The roll of the eyes and the scoff that came from Wallace said it all. By all accounts it looked as if he was more dissatisfied and disappointed than angry with the detectives. "I do actually…" Wallace spoke, snark coming back to his voice in full force.

Scotty shoved his hands in his pockets. "From what we hear, you sort of had a beef with Victor…" he replied. As of right now, he was unsure on where he stood with the man. "And of course with your past record of violence, we're starting to think that you might have taken it out on him."

A loud yelp of laughter erupted from in front of them. Wallace clearly found it all amusing. "Please detectives, is that all that you got?" Wallace started. "Victor was my friend."

"That's not what we have…" Vera spoke. "You told Victor that he wasn't allowed to be at Julia's funeral."

There was a harsh swallow of air that Wallace took in. For a moment he looked between the detectives, in hopes that they would cling to some sort of reason. "I did say that." Wallace quickly found himself leaning against his doorway. "To this day I regret it. Victor was a friend, just like we all were."

Scotty laughed. "You really expect us to believe that you forgave Victor?"

That single twinge of anger rose up in Wallace, but never showed itself. "Look detective, Victor had six friends when he started that year. By his death he only had one and I doubt he was liable to stick around much longer."

"You talking about Arnold Hitchens" Vera asked, having read the name from the case file. He was the only other boy in the group and from what he read, he was the closest to Victor.

He nodded. "Arnie was Victor's confidant after everything that happened. He blamed Victor just as much as anyone else did."

"What makes you think that?" Vera asked, raising an eyebrow and folding his arms across his chest.

"Well because I overheard them talking detectives" Wallace spoke. "Just a couple of days after she was buried too…"

* * *

_["When The Sun Goes Down" by Artic Monkeys]_

_When it came to the gang, there was so much that was left unsaid at the moment. Truthfully, they were less close than before and part of that had something to do with the loss of the one person who had brought them all together in the first place. They no longer felt like a group of friends who could sit down and chat about anything and instead felt like they had become one uniformed reminder that there was no way that Julia Cress was coming back to them._

_The gang had been pointing fingers on who to blame, changing them every few seconds to meet their own selfish needs._

_Wallace's opinion had not changed though. The death might have been an accident but there wasn't a doubt in his mind that Victor was responsible for what happened. If he had managed to get there sooner then she would have still been here with them; if he had managed to try harder, he would have gotten to hear more of her silent laughter._

_Taking a day for himself, the normally stoic Wallace began walking slowly up the path, not even thinking of what this day could do for him. Positioned in his hand were a bunch of flowers that he had managed to pick up. As far as he had remembered, Daises had always been Julia's favourite flowers. It might have only been a few days after the funeral, but Wallace still felt a need to be by her even now._

_As he got closer to her marker though, Wallace seen that two someone's were already there. From this angle it was clear to him that it was Victor and Arnold who must have been here for their own reasons. Part of him internally scoffed the fact that either of them were in mourning._

"_I dunno man, shit just happens sometimes" he heard the voice of the shorter male burst through the harrowing silence. By now, he was close enough to make out their features, but back far enough that neither of them had really noticed that he was present. "Blame is subjective in this case really…" Arnold carried on, shrugging his shoulders in his trademark style._

_Victor shook his head, ready to twist around, which forced Wallace to take cover in the form of a nearby tree. "Subjective? Really?" he spoke up, scoffing a little as he did. Victor sighed softly to himself before continuing. "Look, I'm not taking away from the severity of the situation, but…." Just like that, Victor imitated Arnold with a gentle shrug of his own shoulders. "Arnold, she fell, it's a horrible accident and no one's to blame here."_

_There was a pause. For a second Wallace thought that time was at a standstill, but as he looked out, he could see Arnold shuffling from one foot to the next. Obviously, there was something weighing on his mind that he needed to get out there._

"_I know man, I was there" he replied, fairly defeated by the entire conversation._

_Wiping a hand across his face to hide his annoyed expression, Victor spoke up again. "Then why doesn't believe me? You were there too. You saw what happened." Victor rested a gentle hand on his friends shoulder in hopes that it would break through to the loyal part of who he was. "Arnold. You saw what happened…"_

"_I dunno what I saw man…" he replied, pulling his hat down further over his weedy hair whilst shying away from Victor's eyes. He knew that if he dared look at him now, then he might possibly break and nothing would ever be the same again. "I mean, I was high as hell and all I can remember was screaming and yelling and…. I dunno."_

_It was a load of bull, and even Victor could see right through it. There was a problem here and Arnold was trying his best to skirt around it like it didn't exist. By faking innocence, he was ensuring his own position within the group. Arnold had never been a strong character to rely on and now it was more visible to Victor than it had ever been before._

"_Arnold!" Victor near enough yelled. Perhaps he was close to his breaking point right now. All signs were showing that he was close to cracking under the pressure. If he lost his best friend now then it would have all been over for him. "Please. Just… Dammit, tell the truth" Victor pleaded. It didn't matter to him if the others thought he was innocent or not, but it mattered a lot to him knowing just how Arnold felt. "She was near enough dead when we got there."_

_Again, Arnold said nothing. His ignorance towards the entire debacle was the only thing that was keeping him stable right now._

"_It's not like we even liked her!" Victor finally erupted. There was a sickening silence that fell afterwards that made Wallace want to throw up his lunch. How could he even say such a thing? Maybe he was responsible for everything. Maybe he got a tad too jealous and pushed her down, hoping to take her spot. _

_Arnold shrugged. "I liked he-"_

"_That's a load of bull and you know it" Victor interrupted. "Girl was a capital B Bitch. She had secrets on all of us and was so willing to turn us all against each other when she time was right." He took a step closer. "We were not her friends Arnold. We were her pawns, her patsy's, her goddamn puppets."_

_Almost in synch with each other, Wallace and Arnold shook their heads furiously. "You have no proof of that" he spoke, his voice gradually getting louder in tone. It was almost funny to hear Arnold raise his voice. For the longest time, Wallace had just assumed it was stuck on a very laid back quality._

_This is when Victor opened his coat and took out a small black notebook. What it contained, Wallace wasn't exactly sure of, but he knew it couldn't have been good from the expression that riddled Arnolds face. "This is her handwriting…" Arnold spoke, his tone returning to it's soft and nurturing quality. "This is her handwriting and this is her book."_

_Victor nodded slowly, as if to test the waters of this new situation that he had thrown in between them. "Yeah."_

"_When?" Arnold asked._

"_Huh?"_

_Arnold felt his fist clench a little. "When did you find this?" The signs of an angry Arnold could not have been more clear in that moment. His posture had completely changed and his words carried a growl with them, as if he were ready to go after Victor with every ounce of strength he had. _

_He thought his answer through carefully, weighing down all the options, before finally resorting to tell the truth. "A couple of days before she fell. I found it lying on her bed." Even as the words came out, he knew how ridiculous this must have sounded. "It was just there, sitting on her pillow."_

"_Why were you even there in the first place" Arnold barrelled through with his next question, despite the fact that he felt he already knew the answer._

_There was a short chuckle from Victor before he answered. "Well I can tell you it's not what you're thinking right now" Victor spoke, still smiling from the remnants of the chuckle. "I was just talking to her about some stuff… that's all dude."_

_Arnold poked his tongue to the side of his cheek. With one movement, he under armed the notebook back into Victors possession. They both shared an intense look with each other before Arnold even thought of speaking up again. "You better back away from this man. What you have is a powder keg ready to go off at any moment."_

_Victor backed off a few feet. "Yeah, well, it's proof that little miss ice queen was not the sun and the stars in the sky."_

"_You better drop it bro…" Arnold spoke, reaching the boiling point of his anger. "Or I swear I'm gonna drop you." Arnold had had enough for one day, and so stormed off, leaving Victor there, just looking fairly puzzled and dazed by the whole conversation that had just went down._

* * *

Back in the present day, Wallace Lachlan had a proud smirk plastered over his face. As much as both detectives wanted to knock it off of his face, they knew doing so would have resulted in far more trouble than a scumbag like Lachlan was worth. Instead, they pressed on with their questioning.

"Any idea on what was inside that notebook?" Scotty asked. "Had you ever seen it before."

Wallace shrugged. "Hadn't seen it before then, haven't seen it since. But I can tell ya that what it was must have been important." The smirk began to grow into an all-encompassing grin. "Arnold isn't the type to spook easily, so if something has him fearing, then you best believe it's something good."

"Now is that all?" Wallace said after a lengthy pause. "I sort of have things I need to do"

Scotty made sure to force a smile to his face, whilst Nick continued to look unamused by the presence of Wallace. "That's it for now…." Nick spoke as he turned on his heel and started to descend the steps.

As the door closed, Scotty let loose the words he'd been dying to say. "What a clown man…"

"You're telling me."


End file.
